The Quiet Resilience of a Forgotten Line Standing Steady in the Gathering Dark
CHAPTER 1: THE WEIGHT OF STONE The black rubber of the conveyor belt moved in jerky, three-inch increments, carrying a monotonous procession of plastic-wrapped bread, bruised apples, and generic canned soup toward the scanner’s crimson eye. Arthur Vance held his hand flat on the cool, scratched chrome of his shopping cart handle, feeling the low-frequency…